Jane Lynch gets the “Vogue” treatment

Jane Lynch has had a hell of a week. She got nominated for her second Emmy Award for outstanding supporting actress. She celebrated her 51st birthday. And she is featured in Vogue magazine. Not bad for a tall, lanky tomboy from Illinois who walked out of her first high school play because of stage fright.

The Glee star is profiled with her wife, Lara Embry, in the fashion magazine talking about her marriage, her childhood and her upcoming autobiography, Happy Accidents. The article, titled “Queen Jane Lynch,” recounts the love-at-first-site nature of their relationship, as well as the happy new role Jane has taken on as megastar, wife and mother. Since tying the knot in May 2010, Jane said:

We’ve taken on everything in our first year of marriage. Moving. I gained a daughter. We renovated a house — and writing a book. I mean, talk about learning about your wife!

The article describes clinical psychologist Lara as a “toothsome brunette in the Andie MacDowell mold.” Thank you, Vogue magazine. I knew Lara reminded me of someone all this time and I just couldn’t place her. And it recounts how when she first saw Jane at the 2009 gala for the National Center for Lesbian Rights she thought, “I’m supposed to follow her. It was like I’d been picked up in a fishing net.”

Since successfully netting each other, the couple has also written her autobiography together. It’ll be released in September, another big month for Jane as she’ll be hosting the Emmy Awards Sept. 18.

In the Vogue piece, she recounts her childhood growing up in a Norman Rockwell-esque household where she would sneak into her dad’s closet to play dress up when not staying out all day to play baseball. At age 12 a friend told her about some boys she had seen walking hand in hand and Jane realized “that’s what I have . . . I am the girl version of that.” But she also realized no one could know.

When I grew up, just like in Glee, you had to be what they considered ‘normal’ or you got a Slushee in your face. I didn’t want to be too tall. I didn’t want to be too loud. I didn’t want to be gay.

She came out late in life, at age 32. Her career has also followed that same late-bloomer path, from small scene-stealing parts in movies like Best in Show and The 40-Year-Old Virgin to her household-name making turn as Sue Sylvester on Glee. The latter, by the way, she was convinced to play after reading Glee writer Ian Brennan description: “Sue Sylvester, reputed to be a Penthouse centerfold, also on horse estrogen.”

The show has big things in plan for Sue next season, as series creator Ryan Murphy plans to have her run for congress.

Sue Sylvester will run for Congress. Jane is political, so I think we have to have her say the opposite of what she feels. Sue is definitely pro-guns, hates the arts—she will not only want to destroy the Glee Club but dismantle every arts program in the country!

So then how does Jane prepare for all her withering put-downs and politically incorrect bravado?

I go through a line reading a trillion times, over and over to find the right rhythm; I kill it. And when I say kill it, I mean hit it to death! [Now she goes through her lines with 8-year-old daughter Haden.] She’s a scientist of comedy, too.

With the Vogue profile, Jane notches another accomplishment into her very full belt: Scene-stealer. Emmy winner. Proud mom. Happy wife. Vogue model. Did I mention the birthday girl celebrated yesterday by eating a cake shaped like her dog, Olivia?